Photo credit: Flickr/ 4nitsirk
Are you the kind of engineer who isn’t satisfied just cruising along? Are you looking to be one of your company’s best? Here are 67 things that you can do today to become your company’s top engineer.
Start today by choosing just five and putting them into action. Once those five become part of your regular routine, chose another five and keep going.
I’ve also added excellent references and reading material within the action item wherever I could. I’ve also added links to Audible.com audiobooks for some of the books too. You can download one book for free with them when you sign up for their free 30-day trial, which is pretty slick.
The List
- Get enough sleep.
- Eat properly.
- Prepare for meetings.
- Take careful notes.
- Jump after site experience.
- Show up early.
- Leave late.
- Take courses.
- Read books.
- Listen to audiobooks.
- Choose your attitude.
- Learn how to craft an email.
- Check your spelling.
- Get certified as a professional engineer.
- Get another degree.
- Go to conferences.
- Be pleasant.
- Ask smart questions.
- Don’t use acronyms unless you know for a fact that everyone in the room knows what you’re talking about.
- Listen actively.
- Use a Moleskine
.
- Keep a to do list.
- Keep your calendar
- Eat That Frog!
(Free audiobook version here)
- Find a mentor.
- Mentor someone else.
- Volunteer.
- Read trade magazines.
- Have a vision for your future self.
- Focus
on the task at hand. (Free audiobook version here.)
- Catch up with your boss after anything off site.
- Say what you mean and mean what you say.
- Show up.
- Do the social stuff after hours.
- Become a recognized expert in your field.
- Participate in meetings.
- Hold short meetings.
- Use an agenda when you host a meeting.
- Build your day around routines.
- Be responsive to communication.
- Dress the part – for the office and the field.
- Develop your leadership skills.
- Learn to use your tools and software better than anyone else.
- Don’t gossip about others.
- Give credit where credit is due.
- Make public safety an absolute priority over everything else. Always.
- Take the safety rules seriously when on site.
- Respect other people’s time.
- Learn to ask pointed questions tactfully.
- Be honest about what you know and what you don’t.
- Be a perpetual student of your field. You’re never done learning.
- Put first things first.
(Free audiobook version here)
- Adopt a win-win mentality.
- If it takes less than three minutes, do it now.
- Learn to take criticism.
- Have someone review your work.
- Treat everything like its your life’s work.
- Learn from your mistakes – heck, write them down in your own personal lessons learned document.
- Have a personal mission statement, and live by it.
- Find heroes to model your life after – the world of engineering is full of them.
- Do the work that no one else will do.
- Let people know where you are.
- Find a way to do things better.
- Don’t settle for “This is how we’ve always done it”.
- Know your company’s policies and procedures like the back of your hand.
- Make other people look good.
- Don’t speak just for the sake of being heard.
Do you have any other tips for engineers? Share them in the comments section below.
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Spot on. Many of these points boil down to plain professionalism, good work habits and taking the job and career seriously — which is just as important (if not more so) for an engineer as it is for any professional.
Hi Joe,
Thanks very much! I really appreciate your feedback, and I’m glad you enjoyed.
Pat
hi joe,
nice from hearing your comments,and the first one is if we change our attitude for the working place we will be successfull.
I would adapt your list to be a little shorter, and more to the point. Perhaps group items together under relevant headings.
Hey Titus,
Thanks for your comment! I’ll try and group things together to make it a bit easier to digest. Good idea.
Pat
Thanks for the awesome list, Pat! Just to let you know, I found all of the 67 points to be valuable. I don’t see the need to group or change them in any way.
Hey Petru,
Thanks for your kind words! Much appreciated.
Pat
Good one Pat – really like this one!
Fortunate that the ways are brief and interlinked but the number 67 is intimidating. Making it shorter and grouped should indeed make it more appealing.
Hi Jarrison,
Great suggestion! I’ve been asked about doing that quite a bit now, so I’ll have to go ahead and do that for you all.
Glad you enjoyed!
Pat
Agreed. 67 is easy if you weren’t wired that way from the factory. But not all of us are.
Print this page and pin it on the Bulletin board
Thanks Pat. I think many of these are spot on. It’s difficult to do all of these constantly day in and day out. That’s what makes it worth doing :)
cheers from Seattle.
Hi Bain,
Too true – it would be very difficult to actually do all of these at once ;-) Even just tackling a few can go a long way to helping you in your career though…
Pat
Well great points though! I use proofhub for todo list. Asana seems to me boring :( What you think Pat ?
Hey Techgeekur,
I’ve never used proofhub – I’ll have to check it out! I gotta say though, I’m a *huge* fan of Asana. Once you get the hang of it, it can work magic ;-)
Thanks for the suggestion!
Pat
Awesome stuff.So much tips for an exciting career.We can remember atleast 20 points pat.
Top tips from top official thanks again pat
Hi Kelly,
Thanks so much for your comments! I appreciate the support ;-)
Any favourites?
Pat
Great post Pat!!!
I wrote this list down in my book right before I started my first job.
I used to glance at these mostly everyday for awhile so they are basically etched in my head now.
One and a half years later, I think I did pretty ok.
Thanks alot Pat!
Hey Neeba,
I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to me that something I wrote could be so helpful for someone. I’m really glad you shared this – it’s hugely motivating for me to know that my work can help people like this.
Thanks again!
Pat
Thanks pat